of diabetes mellitus”. British Journal of Biomedical Science 69, no. 2 (2012): 83.
Diabetes Mellitus was identified by ancient Egyptians as early as 1500BC; but it was not until the second century that the Greek physician Aretaeus would give it a name. Aretaeus identified a disease characterized by frequent dehydration and urination, as well as weight loss. Based on these symptoms, Aretaeus gave it the name “Diabetes” which means “flowing through” [1]. Physicians in the early 1700s were able to identify a strong sweetness in the urine samples of diabetics [2]. By the early 1800’s, glucose had been identified as the sugar in the urine of people afflicted with the disease. We now understand Diabetes Mellitus as a blood sugar disorder caused by a deficiency of insulin production [3].
German Chemist Hermann von Fehling was the first person to develop a reliable chemical test to estimate glucose levels in urine [4]. This method of blood glucose detection was known as Fehling’s solution: a reagent containing alkaline that would react in the presence of glucose. Less than a decade later in 1850, a blood glucose testing strip was invented using a different reagent. These wool strips were soaked in stannous chloride: a substance that turns black when it comes in contact with sugar [5]. Though these tests helped to improve the accuracy of urinalysis, they were still too complicated for the average person to conduct with accurate results. In 1908, Chemist Stanley R. Benedict devised a method of blood glucose detection that tested the blood directly. Using Benedict’s copper reagent, a person could produce accurate blood glucose readings without any special training or equipment, thus rendering urinalysis obsolete [6]. Finally, in 1921, scientist Frederick G. Banting identified the pancreatic hormone insulin as the hormone deficient in diabetics [7]. As a result, scientists have been able to produce purified animal insulin as a treatment for Diabetes Mellitus and other blood sugar related conditions. The blood glucose test strip was released in 1965 by Ames Laboratory under the name Dextrostix. These strips reacted with blood to produce a color indicating the level of glucose in the blood [8].
[1] S.F. Clarke and J.R. Foster, “A history of blood glucose meters and their role in self-monitoring of diabetes mellitus”, British Journal of Biomedical Science 69, no.2 (2012): 84.
[2] John Christopher Feudtner, “Bittersweet: Diabetes, Insulin and the Transformation of Illness”, University of North Carolina Press, 2003, 5.
[3] Diabetes. New York, N.Y. American Diabetes Association; Stanford University. 1952
[4] Clarke and Foster, 84.
[5] Amy Moran-Thomas, “Traveling with Sugar: Chronicles of a Global Epidemic” Berkeley: University of California Press, 2019, 76.
[6] Frederick G. Banting, “Diabetes and Insulin” Nobel Lecture, September 15, 1925.
[7] Ibid.
[8] D. R. Harvey, L. V. Cooper, R. F. Fancourt, M. Levene, and T. Schoberg, “The use of dextrostix and dextrostix reflectance meters in the diagnosis of neonatal hypoglycemia”, J. Perinat Med. 4 no.106, (1976), 106.